Not This Time
by jazthegreat
Summary: This is the story of learning to hold on. Percy will not let the same thing happen again. He will hold on. Annabeth Chase can not end up like that.


**Exclaimer: I do not own any of the characters.**

"DO YOU GUYS WANT COFFEE !?"

"ONE FOR ME RACHEL"

"CAN'T YOU GUYS JUST SHUT UP!?"

This is basically the conversation we have every freaking morning.

Okay, let me elaborate on 'we'. We means me, Percy Jackson, and my three friends whom I live with. Connor and Travis Stoll: they have been two of my closest friends since we were kids. So it was no surprise when we decided to move in together when we started college. The rents are high; high enough for any of us to afford on our own. It's been a year now since they moved in with me. The fourth roommate is the latest addition to our household. Rachel Elizabeth Dare. I met Rachel when I was in high school. We weren't really close, but I've seen her painting masterpieces or attempting protests about rescuing some vanishing species. So basically, I like the way she thinks. She had left her house when we made contact a few months after graduation. She called me one day, totally out of the blue and we started talking. A couple of weeks, and we were already close friends. So I didn't hesitate to invite her to our house when she told me about the fight she had with her parents and that she needed somewhere to stay. She has been with us since then, and I can see that the Stolls have come to like her too. One more thing about Rachel, she likes coffee a lot. She brews coffee every morning and shouts in 6 A.M. if any one of us wants coffee. And that's Mr. Connor Stoll answering her. And that's me yelling for them to shut up, because it's 6 in the freaking morning.

"Get up Jackson, you're going to be late for class."

Yeah, sure. Why would I want to be late for class? Isn't that my favorite part of the day after all?

I wake up completely when my phone rings 15 minutes later.

"Good morning, is that Mr. Jackson?" I can't help the smile that is forming on my lips. "Yes ma'am. Did you get a good night's sleep?"

Let me explain what is going on. This is my girlfriend, Bianca. We have known each other for a couple of years now. We have a solid relationship going on. I seriously do not understand what a girl like her sees in me. See, she is the daughter of a dark man. Mafia, or something like that. They call him Hades, and he is rich as fuck. So naturally, Bianca is rich as fuck too. And I am here, struggling to pay one fourth of the rent. She has a brother, Nico, a couple years younger than us. He is a nice one. We play PlayStation sometimes.

"So what are we doing tonight?" I asked her.

"I didn't know we were doing something. Do you have any plans?"

"I have one fourth of a flat. And you are very welcomed."

"I'll be there. Have a nice movie and a DVD player. You forgot the player last time."

"I don't recall anything like that."

"Okay, liar. See you tonight."

* * *

"Do we really need to leave?"

"Dude, my girlfriend is coming over."

"Soo..?"

"OF COURSE YOU NEED TO LEAVE."

Connor can be a little thick sometimes. Thank God, Rachel is always there to save me. "Come on Stoll, we are going to visit this new art exhibition downtown."

I am so grateful, I can't even express.

Now that I have them out, I need to find a DVD player. When did it even get lost?

* * *

"I don't know if I can even eat more pizza in a week. What is this, thirtieth time?"

Bianca would usually say things like that as a joke. This time, she wasn't.

Something seemed wrong with her. She was complaining about everything for the last hour and I really couldn't understand why. She sounded fine in the morning. "We can order something else if you want?"

"No. You know what, I really don't feel like doing anything tonight. Maybe I should go."

I was confused. "What, why? It has barely been an hour since you arrived."

"I don't feel well. I should go." And with that, she left.

* * *

Half an hour later, I was in the closest Starbucks to our apartment. This is where Rachel works. Have I mentioned that she likes coffee a lot?

So we are sitting with Connor and Travis while we wait for Rachel's shift to end.

"I just don't understand. She acted so weird tonight."

"Okay brother" said Travis. "Just get her out of your mind tonight. You will deal with this tomorrow. You are going to freak out like this." This is why I like these two so much. If they don't want to think about something, they simply don't. I decide to resemble and try to keep up with the conversation about the NBA game last night.

"I'm so glad you've found the DVD player." Rachel is the happiest about the situation when we get home. That may be because she payed for the DVD player all by herself.

She wants her reunion with the player and movies to be spectacular but we convince her that she should go to sleep because we are going to play video games.

We play for a couple of hours till we decide it's time to sleep for us too. I brush my teeth and do everything else hygienic that my mom has taught me when I was little. I should probably explain a couple of things about my mom.

My mom, Sally Jackson, was a single mother when she was raising me. Well, actually she was married, but you probably know the whole Smelly Gabe story, if you are reading this. Amazingly, she handled everything so well. Because she is completely amazing. She used to work at a sweet shop to make money, but then she decided to become a writer. She has a boyfriend, Paul, who is a really nice guy; except for the fact that he was my Literature teacher. I'm not really fond of Literature. They had been together for a couple years when he proposed her to go to Europe with him. I was actually okay with this but my mom seemed nervous about leaving me alone, and I also had college coming, and I also had no money. I knew she wanted to go so we made a deal. She left me some money, we found somewhere close to college to live and I kept telling her that everything was perfect. It actually was. I was excited about college. To be honest, everything became better when the number of the household members reached 4. These three are all I could ever ask for.

* * *

"Hey, Percy. I know I acted kind of weird yesterday. I, um, I don't really know what to say. It' my dad. And it's my stepmother. Have I ever told you about my stepmother? It's actually my whole freaking family. Oh, fuck. I need to do a lot of explaining. Please call me when you get my message. Bye." This is what I woke up to. So, I called her.

"Bianca, are you okay?"

"I,I don't know."

"Tell me what's going on." So she told me. She told me how she found out that her father was actually killing people. About how she froze when she witnessed what he did. How he saw her. And how he hit her. Just once, because of spying on him, but it was enough to break her down. And there also is the stepmother. Their mother died years ago, and now their father is getting married with another woman, and Bianca hates her. So does Nico. We talked, talked, and talked. It was understandable that she was upset. What wasn't understandable was the fact that she never called me for the next week. Or answered my calls, or replied my texts. I should have known that this was something serious.

 **I'm really excited for this story and I have the whole storyline planned. I would like to say that there will be Percabeth, I just don't want to rush everything. I hope you like the story so far and let me know what you think!**


End file.
